This invention relates to a wheeled lawn care system adapted to receive a variety of lawn tool attachments including a line trimmer, a blower, an edger, a cultivator, a snow thrower, etc.
Home lawn care equipment takes a variety of forms which are well known in the art. These include such tools as line trimmers, blowers, edgers, cultivators, snow throwers and the like. Wheeled units for individual tools are available and many of these systems work efficiently and provide the desired result of cutting, trimming, blower, etc. However, it is often inefficient to maintain such a wide variety of tools. For hand-held devices, this problem has been addressed by patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,724, which discloses couplings for split-boom power tool with a wide range of selective attachments. Attempts to develop inexpensive wheeled units allowing for selective substitution of a wide range of lawn tools has not been as successful. Units have been developed but these are often difficult to use, provide for limited selection of tools that may be attached and/or have other disadvantages that prevent their wide adoption. Thus, it is desirable to develop a system which is adaptable to selectively achieve all of these results while remaining compact, lightweight and easy to use.
The present invention is a wheeled lawn care unit which comprises a wheeled carriage with a power source pivotally connected to the carriage about a generally vertical axis to allow selective rotation in a substantially horizontal plane. The unit includes a plurality of tools which may be alternatively selected as the working tool. A tool boom portion of the selected tool is connected for selective angular relationship to a boom portion joined to the power source which is maintained in a substantially horizontal orientation. The power source and tool turn on the pivot axis and may be locked at a selected angular relationship to the carriage.
The power source is positioned on the carriage so that the unit""s center of gravity is within a cylinder defined by the wheels of the carriage and forward of the wheels"" axis. The pivot axis of the tool is positioned within the power source footprint and preferably within the wheel cylinder also.
A tool that may be part of the unit is a wheeled edger having an edging blade that is rotated in a substantially vertical plane. The edger wheel has a non-working position where the bottom of the edger wheel and bottom of the carriage wheels define a substantially horizontal planar surface that is below the blade and a work position where the bottom of the edger wheel and bottom of the carriage wheels define a substantially horizontal plane to which the blade passes. The edger has a bias that urges the wheel towards the non-working position but which may be overcome to move the wheel to its work position by rocking the handle forwardly.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel lawn care unit that allows for selection of a working tool from a plurality of tools that may be used and for the positioning of the tool at a variety of positions through selective angular adjustments between boom portions and between the power source and carriage.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wheeled lawn care unit with a low center of gravity and a pivot for the power source which lies within its footprint.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wheeled lawn care unit with an edger that may be rocked between a working and non-working position.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention are readily apparent from the following detailed description of the best mode for carrying out the invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.